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wit1

  (wĭt) pronunciation
n.
  1. The natural ability to perceive and understand; intelligence.
    1. Keenness and quickness of perception or discernment; ingenuity. Often used in the plural: living by one's wits.
    2. wits Sound mental faculties; sanity: scared out of my wits.
    1. The ability to perceive and express in an ingeniously humorous manner the relationship between seemingly incongruous or disparate things.
    2. One noted for this ability, especially one skilled in repartee.
    3. A person of exceptional intelligence.
idioms:

at (one's) wits' end

  1. At the limit of one's mental resources; utterly at a loss.
have (or keep) (one's) wits about (one)
  1. To remain alert or calm, especially in a crisis.

[Middle English, from Old English.]

SYNONYMS  wit, humor, repartee, sarcasm, irony. These nouns denote forms of expression that elicit amusement or laughter. Wit implies intellectual keenness and the ability to perceive and express in a diverting way analogies between dissimilar things: “Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words” (Dorothy Parker). Humor suggests the faculty of recognizing what is amusing, comical, incongruous, or absurd: “Man's sense of humor seems to be in inverse proportion to the gravity of his profession” (Mary Roberts Rinehart). Repartee implies a facility for answering swiftly and cleverly: “framing comments … that would be sure to sting and yet leave no opening for repartee” (H.G. Wells). Sarcasm is a form of caustic wit intended to wound or ridicule another: “[His] tone seemed as if meant to be kind and soothing, but yet had a bitterness of sarcasm in it” (Nathaniel Hawthorne). Irony is a form of expression in which an intended meaning is the opposite of the literal meaning of the words used: “A drayman in a passion [a rage] calls out, ‘You are a pretty fellow,’ without suspecting that he is uttering irony” (Thomas Macaulay). See also synonyms at mind.


wit2 (wĭt) pronunciation

v. Archaic., wist (wĭst), wit·ting (wĭt'ĭng), first and third person singular present tense wot (wŏt).

v.tr.

To be or become aware of; learn.

v.intr.

To know.

idiom:

to wit

  1. That is to say; namely.

[Middle English, from Old English witan.]


 
 
Thesaurus: wit

noun

  1. The faculty of thinking, reasoning, and acquiring and applying knowledge: brain (often used in plural), brainpower, intellect, intelligence, mentality, mind, sense, understanding. Slang smart (used in plural). See ability/inability, thoughts.
  2. Skill in perceiving, discriminating, or judging: acumen, astuteness, clear-sightedness, discernment, discrimination, eye, keenness, nose, penetration, perceptiveness, percipience, percipiency, perspicacity, sagacity, sageness, shrewdness. See ability/inability, careful/careless.
  3. A healthy mental state. lucidity, lucidness, mind, reason, saneness, sanity, sense (often used in plural), soundness. Slang marble (used in plural). See sane/insane.
  4. The quality of being laughable or comical: comedy, comicality, comicalness, drollery, drollness, farcicality, funniness, humor, humorousness, jocoseness, jocosity, jocularity, ludicrousness, ridiculousness, wittiness, zaniness. See laughter.
  5. A person whose words or actions provoke or are intended to provoke amusement or laughter: clown, comedian, comic, farceur, funnyman, humorist, jester, joker, jokester, quipster, wag2, zany. Informal card. See laughter.

 
Antonyms: wit

n

Definition: humor
Antonyms: seriousness

n

Definition: judgment
Antonyms: ignorance, stupidity

 
Literary Dictionary: wit

wit, a much‐debated term with a number of meanings ranging from the general notion of ‘intelligence’ through the more specific ‘ingenuity’ or ‘quickness of mind’ to the narrower modern idea of amusing verbal cleverness. In its literary uses, the term has gone through a number of shifts: it was associated in the Renaissance with intellectual keenness and a capacity of ‘invention’ by which writers could discover surprisingly appropriate figures and conceits, by perceiving resemblances between apparently dissimilar things. It took on an additional sense of elegant arrangement in the 17th and 18th centuries, as in Pope's famous definition of true wit in his Essay on Criticism (1711):

What oft was Thought, but ne'er so well Exprest.
However, the advent of Romanticism with its cult of imagination andgenius tended to relegate wit, along with fancy and ingenuity, toaninferior position, transferring its older positive senses to the imaginative faculty. The usual modern sense of wit, then, is one of light cleverness and skill in repartee or the composition of amusing epigrams. In 20th‐century criticism, an attempt to restore a stronger sense of wit was mounted by T. S. Eliot in his discussions of the metaphysical poets: he praised the wit of Andrew Marvell as a kind of ‘tough reasonableness’, while other critics have seen wit as a kind of disposition towards irony. The important point to note is that earlier uses of the term included the positive sense of imaginative capacity, which has since become rather detached from the weaker modern notion of what is witty.

 
Devil's Dictionary: wit
A cynical view of the world by Ambrose Bierce


n.

The salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out.

 
Word Tutor: wit
pronunciation

IN BRIEF: n. - Mental ability; A message whose ingenuity or verbal skill or incongruity has the power to evoke laughter.

pronunciation Wit is educated insolence. — Aristotle

 
Quotes About: Wit

Quotes:

"Wit is educated insolence." - Aristotle

"Melancholy men are of all others the most witty." - Aristotle

"Wit. The salt with which the American humorist spoils his intellectual cookery by leaving it out." - Ambrose Bierce

"The banalities of a great man pass for wit." - Alexander Chase

"Wit is so shining a quality that everybody admires it; most people aim at it, all people fear it, and few love it unless in themselves. A man must have a good share of wit himself to endure a great share of it in another." - Lord Chesterfield

"A wise man will live as much within his wit as within his income." - Lord Chesterfield

See more famous quotes about Wit

 
Wikipedia: wit
This article is about the form of humour. For other uses, see Wit (disambiguation).

Wit is a form of intellectual humour. A wit is someone skilled in making witty remarks. Forms of wit include: the quip and the repartee.

Forms of wit

As in the wit of Parker's set, the Algonquin Round Table, witty remarks may be intentionally cruel (as in many epigrams), and perhaps more ingenious than funny.

A quip is an observation or saying that has some wit but perhaps descends into sarcasm, or otherwise is short of point; a witticism also suggests the diminutive. Repartee is the wit of the quick answer and capping comment: the snappy comeback and neat retort. (Wilde: "I wish I'd said that." Whistler: "You will, Oscar, you will".)

In French one can distinguish between the bon mot, a witty remark actually produced, and the esprit d'escalier, the thing one should have said that typically comes to mind too late to be of any use.

Wit defined

In his dictionary, Samuel Johnson states that the original meaning of wit is "the powers of the mind; the mental faculties; the intellects"; he also defines wit as "quickness of fancy", among the nine definitions. In Webster's Dictionary, wit is defined as "the association of ideas in a manner natural, but unusual and striking, so as to produce surprise joined with pleasure".

An episode of television series The Simpsons defined wit, in Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield as "nothing more than an incisive observation, humorously phrased and delivered with impeccable timing."

Shakespeare's Polonius said, "Brevity is the soul of wit."

Another possible definition of wit, or humor, loosely attributable to Freud, is "anger, turned sideways".

Wit can also mean intelligence, sharpness and cleverness.

Wit in poetry

Wit in poetry is characteristic of metaphysical poetry as a style, and was prevalent in the time of English playwright Shakespeare, who admonished pretension with the phrase "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit". It may combine word play with conceptual thinking, as a kind of verbal display requiring attention, without intending to be laugh-aloud funny; in fact wit can be a thin disguise for more poignant feelings that are being versified. English poet John Donne is the representative of this style of poetry.

Further meanings

More generally, one's wits are one's intellectual powers of all types. Native wit — meaning the wits with which one is born — is closely synonymous with common sense. To live by one's wits is to be an opportunist, not always of the scrupulous kind. To have one's wits about one is to be alert and capable of quick reasoning.

In Robin Hobb's books, the Wit is a magic that allows someone to communicate and bond with certain wild animals.

"Wit" is sometimes used as an internet slang form of the word "with" in informal SMS/Chat conversations.

Famous wits

John Wilkes was famous in the 18th Century for his wit in response to insults. Mark Twain and Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker and Groucho Marx are considered archetypal 19th and 20th century wits — sometimes even having the remarks of others attributed to them. Also of the twentieth century was British prime minister Winston Churchill, with perhaps the most well documented witticisms of his time. Oliver St John Gogarty was a renowned Dublin wit and surgeon, while John Philpot Curran was an Irish lawyer who would disrupt court hearings with his witticisms. Ksawery Tartakower is usually described as chess grandmaster and wit. The late David Lange, the Prime Minister of New Zealand in the 1980s, immortalized with his nuclear-free legislation, is another well-known historical figure who is remembered for his quick wit. Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating was also well-known for his witty parliamentary remarks. Igor Golynkin is a famous wit and writer from Belarus, though he now resides in Staten Island, New York, he continues to write books based on his witty comedy and ideas. Works from him include "Life is Witty" and "I'm Just a Whatever Kind of Guy".

See also

Bibliography

  • D. W. Jefferson, "Tristram Shandy and the Tradition of Learned Wit" in Essays in Criticism, 1(1951), 225-48

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

 
Translations: Translations for: Wit

Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - forstand, viden, intelligens, kløgt, vid, åndfuldhed

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    gå over ens forstand, ikke vide sine levende råd
  • have one's wits about one    være vågen
  • keep one's wits about one    være hurtig og klar, være rede
  • live by one's wits    leve af tilfældighedernes spil, lave fiduser
  • out of one's wits    fra vid og sans
  • pit your wits against someone    udmane nogen
  • scare the wits out of someone    skræmme forstanden ud af en
  • set one's wits to    sætte sin lid til
  • to wit    nemlig

2.
v. intr. - vide
v. tr. - erfare, tillægge, oplære

Nederlands (Dutch)
verstand, geestigheid

Français (French)
1.
n. - esprit, sens de la répartie, personne qui a de l'esprit, intelligence (npl), présence d'esprit (npl)

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    (ne plus savoir) quoi faire
  • have one's wits about one    rester attentif, conserver sa présence d'esprit
  • keep one's wits about one    rester attentif, conserver sa présence d'esprit
  • live by one's wits    vivre d'expédients
  • out of one's wits    (faire une peur/une terreur) épouvantable à qn
  • pit one's wits against    se mesurer intellectuellement à qn
  • set one's wits to    se concentrer sur
  • to wit    à savoir

2.
v. intr. - savoir
v. tr. - être/devenir conscient de, apprendre

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Verstand, Witz, Geist, geistreicher Mensch

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    ratlos, mit seinem Geist am Ende
  • have one's wits about one    auf Draht sein/nicht den Kopf verlieren
  • keep one's wits about one    auf Draht sein/nicht den Kopf verlieren
  • live by one's wits    sich irgendwie durchschlagen
  • out of one's wits    verrückt, zerstreut
  • pit one's wits against    gegen jmdn. antreten
  • set one's wits to    streiten gegen, widersprechen
  • to wit    nämlich

2.
v. - wissen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - αντίληψη, νους, μυαλό, νοημοσύνη, ευφυϊα, πνεύμα, ευστροφία, ετοιμότητα πνεύματος, λεπτό χιούμορ, πνευματώδης άνθρωπος, χιουμορίστας
v. - γνωρίζω, ξέρω

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    σε πλήρη αμηχανία
  • have one's wits about one    διατηρώ τα λογικά μου, την ψυχραιμία μου
  • keep one's wits about one    επαγρυπνώ, έχω το νου μου
  • live by one's wits    ζω με κομπίνες, ζω με την καπατσοσύνη μου
  • out of one's wits    αλαφιασμένος, αλλόφρων
  • pit your wits against someone    ανταγωνίζομαι σε εξυπνάδα τον
  • scare the wits out of someone    τρελαίνω κάποιον
  • set one's wits to    καταπιάνομαι με
  • to wit    δηλαδή, συγκεκριμένα

Italiano (Italian)
spirito, brio, arguzia, intelligenza, furberia

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    disperato
  • frighten someone out of their wits    far impazzire di paura
  • have/keep one's wits about one    avere prontezza di spirito
  • live by one's wits    vivere di espedienti
  • out of one's wits    fuori di sè
  • pit your wits against someone    polemizzare
  • scare the wits out of someone    spaventare a morte
  • set one's wits to    discutere con
  • to wit    vale a dire

Português (Portuguese)
n. - destreza (f), inteligência (f), sagacidade (f)
v. - usar inteligência
adv. - de forma inteligente

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    no limite de seus recursos mentais
  • frighten someone out of their wits    amedrontar alguém nervoso
  • have/keep one's wits about one    permanecer calmo
  • live by one's wits    viver de expedientes
  • out of one's wits    perder o juízo
  • pit your wits against someone    se comparar com
  • scare the wits out of someone    deixar uma pessoa nervosa
  • set one's wits to    preparar
  • to wit    a saber

Русский (Russian)
ум, разум, остроумие, остряк, знать, узнать

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    стать в тупик, не знать, что делать
  • frighten someone out of their wits    напугать кого-л. до смерти
  • have/keep one's wits about one    не растеряться, не потерять головы
  • live by one's wits    изворачиваться, жить на сомнительные доходы
  • out of one's wits    утратить способность соображать
  • pit your wits against someone    померяться с кем-л. ловкостью и умом
  • scare the wits out of someone    напугать кого-л. до смерти
  • set one's wits to    спорить с кем-л.
  • to wit    то есть, а именно

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - juicio, ingenio, agudeza, inteligencia, talento, gracia

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    estar desesperado, no saber más que hacer, darle a alguien un susto de muerte
  • have one's wits about one    estar en sus cinco sentidos, no perder la cabeza
  • keep one's wits about one    estar en sus cinco sentidos, no perder la cabeza
  • live by one's wits    vivir de su ingenio, ser caballero de industria
  • out of one's wits    haber perdido la cabeza, perder el juicio
  • pit one's wits against    competir con alguien en una prueba de conocimientos o inteligencia, concursar por oposición
  • set one's wits to    atacar (un problema)
  • to wit    a saber, es decir

2.
v. intr. - saber
v. tr. - saber, estar enterado de

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - kvickhet, kvickhuvud, förstånd
v. - nämligen

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
1. 风趣, 机智, 机智的人, 机警

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    山穷水尽, 不知所措
  • have one's wits about one    警觉
  • keep one's wits about one    保持机警, 警觉, 保持头脑清醒及冷静
  • live by one's wits    靠小聪明过日子
  • out of one's wits    不知所措, 发疯
  • pit your wits against someone    同某人争辩
  • scare the wits out of someone    吓得某人不知所措
  • set one's wits to    动脑筋对付...
  • to wit    那就是说, 即, 就是

2. 智力, 智慧, 才智, 知道

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 機智, 機智的人, 機警, 風趣
v. tr., -
v. intr. - 智力, 智慧, 才智, 知道
adv. - 知道地

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    山窮水盡, 不知所措
  • have one's wits about one    警覺
  • keep one's wits about one    保持機警, 警覺, 保持頭腦清醒及冷靜
  • live by one's wits    靠小聰明過日子
  • out of one's wits    不知所措, 發瘋
  • pit your wits against someone    同某人爭辯
  • scare the wits out of someone    嚇得某人不知所措
  • set one's wits to    動腦筋對付...
  • to wit    那就是說, 即, 就是

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 재치, 재치 있는 사람

idioms:

  • at one's wits' end    어찌할 바를 몰라, 자금이 떨어져서
  • have one's wits about one    빈틈이 없다, 방심 않고 두루 정신 쓰다, 침착하다
  • keep one's wits about one    빈틈이 없다, 방심 않고 두루 정신 쓰다, 침착하다
  • to wit    즉

2.
v. intr. - 알다
v. tr. - 알다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 機知, とんち, 知力, 分別, 正気, 機知に富む人, 才人

idioms:

  • have/keep one's wits about one    静かさを保持する
  • out of one's wits    正気を失って, 度を失って
  • set one's wits to    議論する
  • to wit    すなわち

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عقل, ذاكرة, ذكاء, حاسه, دهاء, فتنه, الظريف (فعل) يعلم, يدرك‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תבונה, הבנה, שכל, חריפות, פיקחות, אדם חריף, תפיסה מהירה, יכולת ההבחנה וההבנה‬
v. intr. - ‮ידע (מיושן)‬
v. tr. - ‮הגיע לידיעתו, למד‬

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Copyrights:

Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Thesaurus. Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary Copyright © 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
Answers Corporation Antonyms. © 1999-2008 by Answers Corporation. All rights reserved.  Read more
Literary Dictionary. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Copyright © Chris Baldick 2001, 2004. All rights reserved.  Read more
Devil's Dictionary. Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce, 1911  Read more
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